ARM Landscaping Services only has three crew members, and more often than not, it’s the owner, Andrew Medeiros manning the lawnmower.

But size did not stop the Brighton Hill, Devonshire firm from winning The BERMUDIAN magazine’s Best of Bermuda award for best landscaper, last October.

“I was happy and excited when we won,” Mr Medieros said. “There are some big companies out there that are hard to beat. I couldn’t have done it without my team.”

Mr Medeiros thought the company’s personal touch had something to do with the win.

“I have a good relationship with my clients,” he said. “They can call me any time. We just try to do our best. Instead of dealing with a foreman, clients deal with the owner. I would think that makes us a little different.”

And he said because it is always the same men working jobs, they really develop a rapport with clients.

“The customers feel comfortable because they know us,” he said.

Mr Medeiros started ARM Landscaping 12 years ago, when he was 23. The company name is his initials. When he started ARM he was working for Brighton Nurseries, owned by a family member. He started out doing small jobs for clients after 4pm when he knocked off work.

“The hardest thing about setting up the business was getting a roster of clients together,” he said.

But as he slowly built up a reputation, he was able to focus on ARM two days a week, and eventually full-time. He said one of the challenges was getting together the money to start a landscaping business.

“You need money, in the beginning, to buy all your tools,” he said. “My most expensive tool is my sit-down lawnmower, and my two trucks.

“I do Zoysia Grass for golf courses, so you need a different type of cutting machine for that, which is pretty expensive.”

Working as a landscaper, he has witnessed climate change first-hand, over the last two decades in operation.

“Years ago in the summer, you were cutting and doing work twice a month,” he said. “Sometimes now you will get a month with no rain. But then you will get some months where there is a lot of rain and you have to go three times a month. Hurricanes are also later on and happen more frequently.”

He said contrary to popular opinion, landscapers don’t like storms.

“That is just way more work to do, when you are already busy,” he said. “But every year is different. You can’t base anything on how the weather was last year.”

Mr Medeiros said after the Covid-19 lockdown ended in May there was a lot of catching up to do. Many clients’ yards were running wild.

Covid-19 caused him to lose one worker.

“He was away at the time,” Mr Medeiros said. “He just couldn’t come back. I had some permits in immigration that didn’t get approved, but I got rid of some work to keep it comfortable with a three-man crew.”

His favourite parts of the job are cutting the grass and installing new plants.

“When you put in new plants and gardens you get to express your artistic side,” he said. “I like cutting the grass because it is just you and the lawnmower. You don’t have to talk. You can just put your music on and cut your grass.”

What he likes about the business is that it is consistent.

“It is every day,” he said. “With landscaping, there is always work. You are always busy. There is never a slow season.”

He also likes the variety.

"With something like construction you are building a house for six months so you are at that same place,” he said. “With landscaping every day I am at a different place. I like that part. I also like that I am working outside. I couldn’t really be inside all the time.”

Ironically, he does not have a garden of his own. He just does not have the energy for it.

“I do it all day at other people’s houses and that is fine,” he said.

For more information call 536-3580, e-mail andrew.r.medeiros@gmail.com or see them on Facebook @ARMLandscape.